Thursday, April 8, 2010

Herostratus

Saw Don Levy's Herostratus last night. So beautiful, although it's a bit slow going and I do admit to wandering off now and again to check my email. There's just the whiff of a plot involving an alienated grouch who courts a PR firm to advertise his own suicide. What's really cool though is the film's Nicolas Roeg-like cut-up style. One scene literalizes the technique when the main character takes a pair of scissors to images from fashion magazines -- a bit like the scissors fight in Chytilová's Daisies. Lots of cool brutalist architecture on display too, as much of the action takes place in or on the rooftops of soulless office buildings. Helen Mirren makes her screen debut here as a stripper in a brief send-up of boob-centric advertising. It's funny how boob-tastic Mirren's early roles were (she's topless for a lot of Age of Consent). Sorry, what was I saying?